FILE - The Aug. 6, 2012 file photo shows Sayed Abdelmonem Hamed of Egypt competing against Zaur Kuramagomedov of Russia (in blue) during the 60-kg Greco-Roman wrestling competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. IOC leaders have dropped wrestling for the 2020 Games in a surprise decision to scrap one of the oldest sports on the Olympic program. The IOC executive board decided Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1013 to retain modern pentathlon — the event considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead from its list of core sports. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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FILE - The Aug. 6, 2012 file photo shows Sayed Abdelmonem Hamed of Egypt competing against Zaur Kuramagomedov of Russia (in blue) during the 60-kg Greco-Roman wrestling competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. IOC leaders have dropped wrestling for the 2020 Games in a surprise decision to scrap one of the oldest sports on the Olympic program. The IOC executive board decided Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1013 to retain modern pentathlon — the event considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead from its list of core sports. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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FILE - In this April 21, 2012 file photo, Rulon Gardner speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team Trials in Iowa City, Iowa. Gardner's epic upset of Russian wrestling great Alexander Karelin in 2000 remains one of the most compelling moments of the modern Olympics. Starting in 2020, youngsters looking to Gardner and Karelin for inspiration won't have a chance to excel on the sport's biggest stage. Gardner and nearly everyone else associated with the sport in the U.S. were jolted Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013 when International Olympic Committee leaders dropped wrestling from the Summer Games. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
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Russian lawmaker, ruling United Russia Party member, three-time Russian Olympic champion Alexander Karelin, former wrestler, listens during a parliament session in Moscow, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Karelin noted in an interview with Vyes' Sport that Russians and Soviets have won 77 gold medals. "It's understandable that a lot of people didn't like this," Karelin said. "I'm not a supporter of conspiracy theory, but it seems to me that the underlying cause here is obvious." While wrestling will be included at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, it was cut from the games in 2020, which have yet to be awarded to a host city. (AP Photo)
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FILE - The Aug. 5, 2012 file photo shows Cuba's Gustavo Balart, left, competing with South Korea's Choi Gyu-jin during 55-kg Greco-Roman wrestling competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. IOC leaders have dropped wrestling for the 2020 Games in a surprise decision to scrap one of the oldest sports on the Olympic program. The IOC executive board decided Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1013 to retain modern pentathlon — the event considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead from its list of core sports. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, file)
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FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 6, 2012 file photo Keitani Graham of Micronesia competes against Charles Edward Betts of the United States, right, during the 84-kg Greco-Roman wrestling competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London. An official familiar with the decision says IOC leaders have dropped wrestling from the program for the 2020 Olympics. In a surprise decision Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013, the official tells The Associated Press that the IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon and remove wrestling instead. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
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FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 6, 2012 file photo Amer Hrustanovic of Austria competes against Damian Janikowski of Poland, in blue, during the 84-kg Greco-Roman wrestling competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London. An official familiar with the decision says IOC leaders have dropped wrestling from the program for the 2020 Olympics. In a surprise decision Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013, the official tells The Associated Press that the IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon and remove wrestling instead. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Olympic association body want wrestling
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, head of the Association of the National Olympic Committees (ANOC), says wrestling has the unanimous support of his executive council.
The ANOC executive met in Sydney on Tuesday, the first gathering since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made a surprise recommendation to dump wrestling from its program after the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016.
ANOC agreed on Olympic Solidarity scholarship measures and also a new constitution during Sydney's meet, which is expected to be approved when its general assembly meets in Lausanne in June.
Each ANOC assembly is followed by a joint meeting with the IOC executive board, the organ that recommended wrestling be cut.
"(There was) unanimous support for wrestling ... and we will meet the IOC to discuss," IOC member Al-Fahad Al-Sabah told AAP.
"We are very keen to maintain wrestling in the sport program.
"Like everybody we're surprised wrestling is out of the program ... I think there's surprise not only in this house, but outside. Even in the house of the IOC when the result was announced. Surprise was everywhere.
"We will work very closely with the wrestling IF (international federation) and the NOCs and the continent organisations to give us support for wrestling to maintain its place in the sports program."
Wrestling's Olympic fate is set to be decided at an IOC session in September, which will be held in Buenos Aires.
"We respect the mechanism and the resolution of the IOC, but also I have confidence that the session will vote in favour of maintaining wrestling," Kuwaiti Al-Fahad Al-Sabah added.
ANOC's support comes after wrestling leaders from political foes Iran and the United States united as part of a coalition of nations aiming to keep the sport in the Olympics.
During a recent World Cup in Tehran, the US team shook hands and posed for photographs with Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The host of the 2020 Olympics - down to a race between Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul - will also be broached at ANOC's next general assembly.
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